Friday, December 30, 2016

Last Wednesday, my friends from my old company and I had our monthly catchup and Bird, an American fried chicken restaurant in Camden, the venue of choice. To my surprise given the busy time of year, the place was fairly empty and we were seated immediately.

It being a Wednesday, the deal on offer was a dozen chicken wings and the house beer for a tenner, which I was all over. I also had some cheesy Korean fries, delicious and reasonably priced at £4.50. The chips were so good they wouldn't have been out of place at the equally high quality On the Bab restaurant, a Korean venue.

I think your choice of dips makes a huge impact on how much you enjoy your wings. I had the sticky soy sauce and the Nashville hot, and both complemented the chicken brilliantly - I was tearing into it with my fingers, table manners be damned.

However, my friend Nick had a different sauce (it may have been buffalo), which was poured all over his wings before served, and thus, removed the crunchy quality of the wings that is one of the main sources of its appeal. Thus, if ordering anything with sauce, I would recommend you ask them not to pour it over your wings and arrive separately in a pot, like the ones pictured below.

Apart from that minor foible, I had the time of my life at this restaurant. The waiters were attentive whenever we needed extra serviettes, but more than that, astutely judged that we were four friends who had a lot to say to each other, so thus were not IN YOUR FACE in the thirsty pursuit of a tip like some central London waiters are, so let us be, which was much appreciated.

The final bill was very affordable, and management kindly let us sit in our booths and chat long after we'd finished consumption of dinner, which really is a welcome change from haughty places which allocate you a 1 hour 15 minute time window (or something along those lines) and are all but chasing you out with a broom once you've used up your allocated time.

My brother loves fried chicken too, so I will definitely be visiting Bird again, if not this venue, then one of its other London ones. I recommend you do so too!

Grade: A
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The rest of my restaurant reviews are listed here. If you would like me to review your place, email me at lemon_and_lime7@hotmail.com

Friday, December 23, 2016

Brewdog Soho epitomises why I'm filled with trepidation whenever someone suggests drinking in a bar in central London that is alien to me. It encapsulates all of the disadvantages of drinking in the capital and has none of the perks. Overpriced, an awful drink selection that flirted with the obtuse and blaring obnoxiously loud hipster music, the 2.5 hours I had to spend in this dive were some of the longest of my life.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

From the DVD boxset of the final season of The Good Wife. A bit on the descriptive side!

From American Horror Story: Hotel's boxset. Notice the distinction between 'sexual violence' (i.e., rape) and 'sexualised violence' (the conflation of violence and sexual images, e.g. a stabbing during a sex scene).

Not gonna lie, reading this tells me I'm right in my convictions never to watch an episode of this scabrous show!

This is from How to Get Away with Murder. I was quite taken aback by this; all I know about this show is that Viola Davis is in it, and she is typically excellent. I was not expecting it to be an 18 cert! A quick glance over the American TV rating (TV-14), tells me that this might be the BBFC being weirdly strict.

Two other TV shows that I've noticed are TV-14 in the States and 18 over here are The 100 and Scandal. A telltale sign that a show is aiming for the TV-14 market when you're watching is extensive sexual dialogue and maybe even steamy sex scenes featuring nudity, but not once does anyone say the f-word (this also applies to many a TV-14 show that have gotten 15 over here, such as the aforementioned The Good Wife).

I find it amusing that you can put quite a lot of adult content in a TV-14 and get away with it, but once you say 'f_ck', that's when you cross the line into TV-MA...

From Gotham's boxset. Again, I was just amused because of the juxtaposition of those four disparate classification issues.

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Whilst the BBFC are playing hard to get with regards to their rating of Elle, for which Isabelle Huppert is gaining Oscar buzz (I know I haven't seen it yet but I really hope she wins!), their Irish counterparts aren't so coy, and have released it with an 18. Given that the two awards bodies more often than not align, I'm guessing that this will be my second 2016 release that I've seen of an 18 cert! I've been very lax with watching 2016 releases of this rating; the only other has been The Neon Demon.

By the by, I noticed in HMV yesterday that on the occasions when the BBFC and IFCO don't agree on a film, they just bung the British rating on the front (otherwise, they put both, side-by-side):

Eddie the Eagle is a 12 in Ireland and A Hologram for a King is 15 in Ireland. I think this precaution is sensible; you wouldn't want to confuse buyers!

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Finally, I have no intention of watching this, but, nice wall mural for Assassin's Creed:

Sunday, December 18, 2016

I went to this cocktail bar last Thursday with my friend Rebecca before our Office Christmas Party. As we were in the Happy Hour time window (4pm-7pm), we had 2-4-1 cocktails, although such was the venue was so understaffed that it took about three times as long as it should have for us to order and receive our drinks.

Towards the back of the restaurant, there was a table that was booked for some time in the future, and the three waitresses working (far too few, given how packed the bar was around holiday season) spent most of the time fussing around that table (of which yet none of the customers had arrived) and stubbornly pretending not to see the many customers who did need their attention.

I got the distinct impression that the expected company must have been quite reputable (read: rich), and so they were bending over backwards to ingratiate themselves with them in the hope of a handsome tip, but arranging the tables should definitely have been a fait accompli, especially when there were so many expectant customers.

The quality of the cocktails were fine, nothing to write home about, but perfectly passable for their Happy Hour rates. The Long Island Ice tea did not scrimp on the portions of alcohol, so that was appreciated, given we were about to go to a party that involved dancing!

However, one final thing that really got my goat about this poorly-run establishment was that they helped themselves to a 12.5% service charge on the bill. What service charge was that? We had to hail the waitresses several times, and when I ordered the first drink, the woman serving me was so distracted she forgot what I ordered. When we wanted to leave to pay, nobody came to our table, leaving us to find the waitresses so we could pay them for their 'fabulous' service.

I understand the waitresses wanting to kiss the ass of old rich folk, #YouDoYou. But to alienate almost everyone else in the restaurant in the process, rendered their thirsty pursuit of this a rather pyrrhic victory.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

This post is my contribution to the What a Character! blogathon as organised by ONCE UPON A SCREEN, Paula of PAULA’S CINEMA CLUB and yours truly, Kellee of OUTSPOKEN & FRECKLED which celebrates supporting performers in film. I have gone with a contemporary actor who has stolen the show in almost everything I've seen him in, Mr Ben Mendelsohn (aka the baddie from Rogue One).

I first noticed the actor before having watched him in anything, and it was seeing his name on the Starred Up poster (a film, lamentably, I still haven't seen, although it's high up on my to-see list for the trifecta of reasons that it's from the director of Hell or High Water, and it stars Ben and Skin's Jack O'Connell, easily the best actor to emerge from that show).

The reason Ben Mendelsohn's name struck with me is because there is a composer of the same name (albeit with two 's's, Mendelssohn), who composed the famous Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's funny how the mind makes irrelevant cognitive connections like that, but with a memorable surname like that, I was curious to watch his acting performances.

He had a short-but-memorable appearance in The Dark Knight Rises in a suitably shouty, sweaty cameo, but the film that gave him an outlet to truly show his acting range was in The Place Beyond the Pines, a three-act story which follows the intersecting fates of a bank robber Luke (Ryan Gosling) and the cop, Avery, who pursues him (Bradley Cooper).

In The Place Beyond the Pines Mendelsohn plays Luke's only friend and co-conspirator who helps him commit the bank robberies (a nice counterpart to the role he played in The Dark Knight Rises). The two men, both outcasts, share a tentative, wordless bond, and the chemistry between Gosling and Mendelsohn is excellent, deftly portraying how the latter can pre-empt the former's actions before he's even done them. In the final act, when we see Mendelsohn's character again, and in his inarticulate way, he shows how much he cared for Luke, hinting that there may well be honour among thieves.

Ryan Gosling enjoyed working with Ben Mendelsohn so much on The Place Beyond the Pines that he cast him in his directorial debut, the critically panned misfire Lost River. Almost everything about that film sucked, bar Saoirse Ronan (who is amazing in everything), and Ben Mendelsohn, as a smarmy bank manager Dave who will do anything to get his way with struggling single mother Billy (Christina Hendricks).

Throughout the film, Dave repeatedly tries it on with Billy, only for his brusque courtship to be knocked back every time. However, as one of the patrons of a local burlesque studio, and her financially precarious situation, Billy has little choice but to play right into his hands by first working there, and then agreeing to partake in an after-hours 'shell game' for more money. In this bizarre ritual, a woman is locked in a transparent case and the payer can do what ever they want... to the shell. In theory, the woman should be safe as the shell is looked, but that doesn't render the whole experience any less terrifying.

Naturally, Dave seizes his opportunity, and such has been his unsettling demeanour that you have no idea what form of depravity he will unleash onto the shell. As a matter of fact, he dances in front of it!

The lousiness of Ben Mendelsohn's dancing in this scene, accentuated by the neon backdrop and the electro-score playing in the background, that the whole sequence is incredibly discombobulating. The way he looks at Billy whilst doing so, too, tells you that this is his idea of asserting his raw masculinity, a kind of recompense towards the woman who has had the temerity to turn him down.

As a very amusing stray piece of trivia, Ryan Gosling revealed that the music Mendelsohn had during this scene was 'Bad Bitches' by Kendrick Lamar, which would explain a threatening line of dialogue he barks at Hendrick's character whilst dancing at her. At the time I thought it was his character being crude, but now I see he was just quoting the song.

Ben Mendelsohn has plied his trade as an actor playing villains, of which Director Orson Krennic in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an appropriately evil performance, will add to his litany of baddies. One such villainous turn from him that I particularly liked was as Payne in Slow West, a character who teases with an (almost ingratiatingly) amiable veneer, but deep down, you wouldn't trust them as far as you would throw them. Mendelsohn uses his whole face when acting (a quick sly look sideways, a twitch of the lips, a twist of the jaw) to convey thorny characters who occasionally let their masks slip.

Ben Mendelsohn didn't rise to prominence until relatively late in life (he's 47 now), but he has such a characteristic look about him, that once you see the Aussie in one role, you won't forget him. His acting style is distinctive but never distractingly mannered. As I've always said, I tend to identify more with villainous characters in movies, so it was only natural that I would gravitate towards Mendelsohn, who's ability to mould sinister antagonists in films is prenaturally good.

I'm delighted at how well things have gone for him (he is a massive Star Wars fanboy so getting to play the main antagonist in the film must have been a special moment) and eagerly await whatever film roles he takes next.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

I’d just come out of a meeting to check the nominations and when I saw my girl Emily Blunt got a surprise nomination, I almost started hyperventilating!!!!! I was not expecting that one at all, as the film was terrible, and usually when people nominate a performance in a film, they tend to take the quality of the film into consideration. But so happy to be proved wrong! Here be some of my quick thoughts on the film nominations (don’t know enough about TV to comment)

Would love to see Denzel win, but unfortunately, we all know this award is going to the Groper of Women when they Sleep, Casey Affleck.

Andrew Garfield’s SAG nomination means we get (sort of) his-and-hers nominations for him and his ex-girlfriend Emma Stone; although they’ve broken up, they parted ‘very amicably’ and by all intents and purposes seem to adore each other. Awww.

Amy I was pretty sure was getting in, as she’s in a strong film and is popular with awards bodies, and she bloody deserves it. Adams is so talented she can even act well in Batman v Superman.

But I really did not see that Blunt nomination coming. The Girl on the Train was an absolute chore, tediously written and directed, but Blunt was far away the best thing about it. And she was absolutely phenomenal, one of the best drunk performances ever, even more impressive given she didn’t touch a sip of alcohol during the shoot.

I just love how the top two performances from my Best Actress list so far this year have gotten recognised!

Now BAFTA better f_cking nominate Emily too and build some momentum for her to get that Oscar nomination! I'm not sure they will, tho, they didn't even nominate Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years last year...

The main loser from this list, sadly, is Isabelle Huppert, who had been gaining quite a lot of awards traction by scooping the majority of critics awards. Not being nominated here calls her chances of an Oscar nomination into doubt.

Her omission is good news for Natalie Portman and Emma Stone, who will probably go head-to-head for that Oscar.

Natalie has already won one (for being histrionic and taking the credit for her body double's excellent ballet dancing in Black Swan), so the odds probably favour the "half-Asian", Emma Stone.

Really hope Isabelle Huppert scuppers the both of them come Oscar time :P

I haven’t seen Florence Foster Jenkins, but the fact that Hugh Grant got nominated for Lead Actor at the Golden Globes suggests some category fraud here. Happy for him, nonetheless.

Speaking of category fraud, this is the second time the SAGs have shamelessly enabled category fraud on the part of Dev Patel; he was nominated for Supporting Actor in 2009 for Slumdog Millionare. Supporting. When the whole film’s about his character! (but I’m very pleased for him; he was great in Skins and seems a thoroughly sweet chap!)

With her Golden Globe and now SAG nominations, Octavia Spencer’s shots at an Oscar nomination for Hidden Figures have sky-rocketed. Her The Help co-star Viola Davis must be favourite for the win here, although her closest competitor is probably Michelle Williams.

I would have loved to have seen some recognition for Lily Gladstone's beautifully realised turn in Certain Women, but that film was probably too small-budget for major movie awards. Hopefully she'll win at the Independent Spirit Awards, tho.

I so, so wish Viola had campaigned for Lead; maybe then, someone could have put the brakes on Natalie’s second Oscar or the "half-Asian" winning. :'(

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
FENCES
HIDDEN FIGURES
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
MOONLIGHT

This is the SAG category that is most correlative to ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars, so it may seem strange not to see Best Picture frontrunner La La Land on here. But as many who’ve seen the film have commented, La La Land is essentially a duet between Stone and Gosling, and there’s not much in the way of memorable support. So fair play to SAG for actually nominating films for the category that it says, rather than bending to populism.

Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight were always going to get nominated in Ensemble, but the other three: Fences, Captain Fantastic and Hidden Figures not necessarily so, so their chances with Oscar have just been boosted. I think Moonlight will win this category, making it La La Land's main competitor for Best Pic.

So many explanation marks in this post. I’m just so giddy on Emily Blunt’s behalf. What a week. Between Jonah’s surprise Golden Globe nomination on Monday and Emmy’s surprise nom today, I am just loving these noms!

Monday, December 12, 2016

Here be the 2017 Golden Globe nominations, announced earlier today! As I haven't seen the majority of the films yet, I shall just post the lists unless I have something of value to say XD

Best Picture, Drama
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

Where on earth is Arrival? No way is Mel Gibson's tedious-looking Hacksaw Ridge more deserving of a Best Pic nomination than the beautiful sci-fi movie! I'm glad to see Hell or High Water get some love, tho.

Of these, I've only seen Deadpool, which was solid (7/10), although comedies I rated higher this year include Zootopia, Cafe Society, War Dogs, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople,The Edge of Seventeen, Ghostbusters and Love and Friendship, so I can't say I think it totally deserves its place on the list.

I'm not convinced Tom Ford's ponderous brand of perfume commercial 'directing' in Nocturnal Animals was better than what Denis Villeneuve achieved on the other Amy Adams film, but there you go. I know I haven't seen Hacksaw Ridge but ew at that raging anti-semite Mel Gibson being recognised.

I haven't seen any of these titles yet, but Casey Affleck has been absolutely decimating the competition in all the Critics Awards so far, so he's considered front-runner for Best Actor. Which is annoying as he groped a woman whilst she was asleep, but hey-ho, I guess Hollywood has short memories about sexpesting when you're white and your big brother does all the campaigning on your behalf, precluding you from looking thirsty.

(The irony of me complaining about a sibling showing off on their younger brother's behalf is a bit rich, given I'm constantly bragging about my brother's grades on Facebook, but not like me to be a hypocrite, now is it? *cough* have a go at Blahra Delevingne for using her father's connections to get into films when I didn't do a dissimilar thing to get on my MSc *cough*)

Yesss at Amy Adams getting nominated for the right movie. And yessss for her fellow redhead Jessica Chastain getting a nom; an Oscar nom is probably out of the question now, but it's nice to see Queen Jessica recognised somewhere!

Isabelle Huppert has been slaying at the Critics Awards so far, and whilst the overlap between critics (who tend to favour arthouse, European performances) isn't identical with the Oscars and HPFA, their star-f_cking Hollywood counterparts, this nomination builds good momentum for Isabelle. I hope she wins the Oscar!!!!

I've been trawling Oscarwatch websites and the dismay and shade at Hill getting nominated here has me trollfacing, so hard. He provoked a similar reaction when he got his second Oscar nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street, as if because he's rotund and a comedy man, he's not allowed to recognised for his acting performances???

My money is on 99% of the naysayers not even having seen War Dogs, because Hill was immense in it. His unsettling giggle and his portrayal of a self-aggrandising, jumped up prick was just so on point and I would know about self-aggrandisement. He fully deserves this nomination, haters gonna hate. SO PROUD OF JONAH!!!!

And so proud for young Hailee Steinfeld as well!!!!!! Hailee was snubbed of a Golden Globe nomination for her majestic turn in True Grit, although she eventually went on to get an Oscar nomination for that film, so it didn't harm her too much. I love her, she's in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood music video (along with another actress who I love and never discredit, Cara Delevingne) and she's a sick singer too; Love Myself needs to be everybody's masturbation anthem.

Plus Hailee was absolutely radiant in Edge of Seventeen, bringing empathy and pathos to a character who (on paper) was an absolute nightmare. Her expressive face just lit up the screen.

I hope Hailee wins this category, although that's very unlikely. Emma Stone will certainly be frontrunner for this award, not least because La La Land will win multiple categories at the Globes. I be hella petty and fangirlish; I don't want Emma Stone to win an Oscar until her Superbad co-star Jonah Hill wins his first. (also, she played a half-Asian in Aloha. Just sayin').

I'm so happy ATJ got credit for Nocturnal Animals!! In all the other precursors so far, it's Michael Shannon who has been getting nominated for Supporting Actor, so the fact that the Golden Globes bucked the trend is both surprising and welcome. Aaron was creepy AF in Nocturnal Animals, what a transformation given he's quite the dish in real life. And I know this isn't related to his acting, but I just love that he took on his wife' surname.

Simon Helberg is ace on The Big Bang Theory as smarmy Howard, so it's nice to see he's transitioned to films well!

Strong category. I haven't seen any of the performances yet, but currently in my personal Supporting Actress ballot, I have Viola Davis fifth (for Suicide Squad) and Michelle Williams sixth (for Certain Women), and these aren't even the films they're in awards contention in, so I'm sure they'll bring a lot of gravitas to their nominated roles.

Surprised to see Hell or High Water nominated, but very pleased about it. I'm not convinced about Nocturnal Animals' screenplay, as I was with the direction. It was just a pulpy revenge movie? A very sleek pulpy revenge movie, but a pulpy revenge movie nonetheless. Unless I'm missing something... Personally, I thought the best thing about the film were the performances (particularly ATJ).

Best Original Score
Moonlight
La La Land
Arrival
Lion
Hidden Figures

Yay for Arrival! Jóhann Jóhannsson's ethereal score suited the vibe of the film perfectly.

Best Animated Feature Film
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
Sing
Zootopia

Zootopia is currently my third favourite film of the year and Kubo and the Two Strings my sixth, so I would be happy with either winning.